Public Servants Get The Shaft
When I was 11, I heard John F. Kennedy talk about the nobility of public service and the unlimited potential of the American people when they put their collective minds to something.
When it came time for me to choose a career, serving the American people seemed a natural.
Until two months ago, I worked - proudly - for a small non-regulatory scientific agency most Americans never have heard of. The U.S. Bureau of Mines included 2,000 scientists who made the workplace safer for miners, found ways to solve mining-related environmental problems and analyzed trends in mineral exploration, production and consumption in order to avoid a repeat of the turmoil caused by the oil embargo of the early 1970s.
Altruistic goals, mostly, but achieved with outstanding success for an agency so small. Yet, two months ago, Congress abolished the Bureau of Mines, and an agency that had toiled for 85 years to solve national problems disappeared.
How has it happened that 35 years ago it was noble to enter public service, but now the majority of citizens wouldn’t ever consider it?
How has it happened that, in spite of having one of the best civil service systems in the world, Americans believe their employees are overpaid and underworked and that anyone who is at all competent has left public service for private industry?
I have met and worked with public employees at many levels - the teachers who have gone the extra mile to help my children, the man who has delivered our mail for 20 years, the fellow employees who work late or on weekends. Few fit the image of lazy incompetents feeding at the public trough.
The public servants I have worked with are characterized by altruism, belief in public service, the work ethic, dedication - and, now, by discouragement and fear.
I have been mocked, cursed, even threatened because I work for the government. Friends have been beaten because of it. I doubt this is what John Kennedy had in mind.
It is too late for my little agency. It also is probably too late for many of the people I know who are leaving public service because they no longer find it rewarding or even safe.
And very few young people are entering public service these days.
When the seasoned veterans are gone and there are no young new idealists to take their place, what will become of this country we all love?
MEMO: “Your turn” is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a “Your turn” column for consideration, contact Rebecca Nappi at 459-5496 or Doug Floyd at 459-5466, or write “Your turn,” The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane 99210-1615.